Letters from North America
by Peary Perry
Where
to start?
I have no clue since
there is so much to
write about.
So, I suppose the best
way to start is to just
jump in and let go.
Let’s see…how about this
one?
Suppose you are a
substitute teacher in a
small town. You aren’t
very computer literate
and even need help
making cell phone calls.
Now suppose you are
using the internet for
some information in your
class, you get a message
to call your husband,
you leave the room for a
few minutes and when you
return, several students
are looking at some
website for various hair
styles.
No big deal, right?
Wrong.
Now, you start the class
again, and then without
any warning, the
computer starts showing
popup images for porn
sites. Then the more the
teacher tried to close
out the images, the more
came, for all to see.
The current terminology
for this is a ‘pop-up
storm’.
Now, this poor teacher
had been instructed not
to turn off the
computer. As a result of
these images being
displayed to her middle
school age students,
this teacher was
charged, tried and
convicted and faces a
possible sentencing of
forty years in prison.
Her sentencing is now
set for March 29th.
The prosecution has
admitted that the school
did not have the proper
filtering programs in
place and that they did
not check to see if the
offensive sites were
caused by adware or
spyware which may have
misdirected the websites
to the pornographic ones
which were viewed by the
students. They also
could not understand why
the teacher had not
covered the screen with
a jacket or just shut
the monitor off when the
images first appeared.
This teacher (Julie
Amero- Norwich, Conn.)
has had her life turned
upside down as a result
of this ordeal.
Obviously her defense is
a huge expense to her
family as well as the
humiliation of having to
go to trial. At her
trial, it was admitted
that no one had
investigated her
computer to determine if
it was possible for
these porn sites to get
through the antiquated
filtering system which
was in place. The only
evidence given was that
of some of the students
who had been in the
classroom.
I suggest that Mrs.
Amero might have used
better judgment and
pulled the plug on the
entire thing and suffer
the resulting
consequences, whatever
they might be. But,
let’s look at this
situation realistically.
Did her defense ask the
offended students if
these images were the
first of these kinds
they had ever seen
before in their lives?
While this entire
situation is very
touchy, and I don’t wish
to suggest that teachers
go around showing porn
in their classrooms, I
would be very surprised
if most of these
students had not been
exposed to this stuff
before. Either on the
internet or on
television.
What we see or are able
to see during prime time
today was banned as
being pornographic less
than twenty years ago.
At our house we stick
with the History,
Discover and Food
channels more than
anything else. I find it
sad that you pay
something like a hundred
dollars a month for 200
or more channels and you
are reduced to watching
some guy from New
Orleans making brownies
at seven in the evening
because there isn’t
anything else decent
worth your viewing time.
God only knows what
teenagers have access to
in this day and age.
Come on, the local
newspaper account stated
that the students
observed several images
of couple engaged in a
sexual act that was the
same as described in the
impeachment of a recent
president of the United
States. As the former
leader of our country
described it in his
testimony, what he did
‘was not sex.’ Everyone
laughed and the country
moved on past that
little point in time. No
harm done was the
overall consensus. Or
was it?
After reading all of the
news accounts that are
available, including
ones from computer
experts I find the
conviction of Mrs. Amero
to be unbelievable.
Should she have received
some form of
disciplinary action?
Yes, certainly along
with some computer
training to improve her
skills, but a potential
of forty years in the
slammer? Murderers,
rapists, and child
molesters often receive
less than this.
No way should this have
happened.
Of course, Norwich is
only 120 miles from
Salem.
